51–60 of 363 posts
> it has zero airbags. No crash crumple zones. Not a single electronic safety aid. It doesn't even have anti-lock brakes
You are not meant to take it on a highway, either. It's a bit like saying "pedestrians have zero airbags, crush crumple zones are bones" - you are soo close to getting it!
At a top speed of 28mph, it's literally illegal to take it on a highway in most of the world.
> it has zero airbags. No crash crumple zones. Not a single electronic safety aid. It doesn't even have anti-lock brakes
You are not meant to take it on a highway, either. It's a bit like saying "pedestrians have zero airbags, crush crumple zones are bones" - you are soo close to getting it!
Unfortunately actually walking seems to remove them again, but top scientists are on it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. This isn't really a car. It is a fancy electric golf cart with doors.
I mean that's literally in the base blurb, it's an electric quadricycle.
I’d like one, but not for £8,000 - an electric bakfiet (cargo bike) seems better value for money.
It’s neat but for greater range, check out the microlino from those scooter people!! Oh yes, that one’s not restricted for speed too!
> the £7,695 tiny electric car that has no boot, a 28mph top speed and range of just 46 miles I live in Paris and do everything with an e-bike that also has no boot, no passenger seat, a top speed of ~20mph, a range of ~30 miles... but cost me around €1,200 (since I built it myself). It now has over 7,500 miles. In day trafic it's probably much faster than the Ami, and it can also be put on a train. Couldn't be happi…
As I understand it, cars are increasingly banned in downtown Paris (even glorified electric bikes like this). I haven't been since before pandemic but I really want to see that. It sounds like a great experiment.
I drove in Paris past August, and didn't notice any bans.
Parking availaibility and price varies a lot, but it's workable.
Its ugly! A key to Tesla's success is that its cars look like cars, not abominations. Many electric car makers seem to hate cars.
I think this is ugly and cute at once. Like a first gen Scion xB (although that was boxier). But this is clearly a car to fit a regulatory niche, few will drive this if they have other options, so style isn't really in the budget.
Why not? If you're a city-zen and going to do something in the city too far to go on foot, using an ami is much easier than using a full-size car, unless you have an A-segment car (and even then, the ami is a full meter shorter than your average A-segment, the length of the Ami is the wheelbase of a Picanto or an Aygo).
It's not like the 28mph is a big impediment in most city traffic.
> the £7,695 tiny electric car that has no boot, a 28mph top speed and range of just 46 miles I live in Paris and do everything with an e-bike that also has no boot, no passenger seat, a top speed of ~20mph, a range of ~30 miles... but cost me around €1,200 (since I built it myself). It now has over 7,500 miles. In day trafic it's probably much faster than the Ami, and it can also be put on a train. Couldn't be happi…
The Ami has a primitive heater but no air conditioning, but there’s no reason that these limitations are inherent to a vehicle of this size. I imagine an Ami-sized car with creature comforts of a regular vehicle would sell extremely well in cities.
Biking is great when the weather is amenable to it. When the weather is not, I'd rather not show up to my destination drenched in sweat, soaked in rain, or freezing my ass off.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's ugly because it was made to be as cheap as possible. For example, the "passenger" side door is the same door as the driver side, so the driver's door opens like a suicide door, while the passenger one opens like a conventional door. All elements of the car were made to be as perfectly symmetrical as possible and interchangeable. The so-called abomination has a hope of driving poorer people from A to B, while you…
Cheap EVs aren’t profitable. If you want to make them cheap, supply chains must spin up to drive down costs, not sell lip stick on a pig death traps. This is not Musk specific. Legacy automakers can’t bring cheap EVs to market that compete with Teslas either. They are glorified golf carts because they must be. Cheap out on batteries and motors and your warranty reserves and costs are exorbitant and destroy profitabil…
With this kind of statement I have to believe you're arguing in bad faith. Even manufacturers that haven't jumped onto the full electric bandwagon like Toyota are ramping up manufacturing, see : https://www.thestreet.com/investing/automakers-in-race-to-ma... >The Japanese automaker said on Aug. 31 it will spend another $2.5 billion in its battery plant in North Carolina, called the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.
>The investment at its newest North American facility will increase capacity to support battery production. Toyota plans to hire another 350 employees for a total of 2,100 workers.
>Toyota said last year it plans to invest heavily in electrification and plans to spend a total of $70 billion, plus a total of $5.6 billion for battery production, which includes the new North Carolina investment.
> let’s set aside who Musk is for a moment and reflect on a $1B global dc fast charger network (“Superchargers”) and an EV manufacturing flywheel that continues to ramp (approaching 3 million units built and sold pa), together which has convinced major nation states to enact or pull forward their new vehicle combustion vehicle sales bans. Someone can be a pathological liar and greedy and yet have moved the needle.
Tesla totally invested in superchargers for the greater good and not to have a proprietary charging network! if it wasn't for the rules we have in the European Union they would have brought the proprietary chargers they had in America and would not allow competitors to use it.
The needle would move nonetheless, it is no longer a matter of choice but about the continued survival of the species as a whole. In France tesla are a rare sight but small delivery cars like these : https://imgur.com/a/kUUJKYV Have become extremely common sights in the city centre. We are also doing a lot in trying to get people away from cars as much as possible : Montpellier is going to make all local public transportation free.
Anyone else go into this hoping to see a lack of excessive infotainment and other electronics and their associated boot times (looks like that's mostly also true for this, but not the highlight of the article)?